The Footprint Blog

Get out of the shower

The first serious winter storms have finally arrived in California, but it seems unlikely that we’ll get close to making up the water we badly need to get out of the current drought. So it seems a good time to remind everybody of the benefits of short showers.

**How this helps**

A shorter shower not only saves water, but also saves on the energy used to heat that water. A typical non-conserving showerhead will spray over five gallons per minute (GPM), so cutting your shower from eight minutes to three will save a whopping 25 gallons of water. That’s enough to fill an olympic pool over a lifetime of showers. Of course you should really use a low flow showerhead, which will save you even more.